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Greetings all, First off, my apologies for the extended hiatus the Taming the Beast Ezine has experienced in recent months. Things have been busy, busy, busy - each time I sat down to make a start on an issue, something would invariably crop up. Such is the nature of working in Web Marketing and Ecommerce industries I guess, but I'm pleased to announce that our ezine will now go back to being one of our regular free resources. What's new?Wow, where to start.. here we go... Shifting servers, changing structuresTaming the Beast is still hosted by ThinkHost, but we experienced a surge in levels of traffic that required us to be shifted over to another server on their network. Moving a web site the size of Taming the Beast is never a simple task and I'll be publishing a tutorial on that issue that will be available on the site in the next week. A server move requires a great deal of planning and co-ordination with a hosting service. More importantly, if it's not done carefully you can lose your hard-fought-for rankings on the search engines. Even though your domain name, page/folder names may not change, search engines such as Google "tag" your site not by name, but by IP address. When you move servers, your IP will usually change, so when the Googlebot goes looking for you, it can appear that your site has disappeared! As you can imagine, this can have disastrous results. More on this next week.. (note from Michael - article now published, view it here) If you're interested in learning how to preserve your search engine rankings when renaming or moving folders around on your site and it doesn't involve a server move, check out this tutorial: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm Just on Google..Have you been noticing strange fluctuations in traffic from Google in recent weeks? Is your Page Ranking level when viewed through Google's tool bar displaying weird anomalies? Google has stirred up the webmaster and search engine marketing community by making some massive changes to their update system and page ranking algorithms - and it's still happening. What are the changes? Well, this is the thing that has webmasters and search engine optimization professionals scratching their heads - we're not exactly sure yet. The changes we are all currently seeing on Google are the biggest departure from the usual patterns seen for a very, very long time. If you are experiencing a great change in your visitor levels from this source, or PR0 indicators on pages that usually rank well - hold tight. It's not time to take out a second mortgage, jump from a window or to buy a case of Dom Perignon just yet. I think we've still got a couple of weeks to go before this all pans out. I've been haunting various Search Engine Marketing forums in the last couple of weeks and even the most experienced marketers are befuddled by Google's recent activity. There's been so many theories flying around that I've given up on trying to figure out what the changes are - I'll just sit and wait for the mighty G to settle.. New Menu System and StructureIf you have visited Taming the Beast in recent weeks, you would have noticed a new drop down menu system. The site hasn't been easy to navigate so we hope that you find the addition of our drop down menu of value. I've also started categorizing my articles and tutorials instead of just dumping them into a single archive. General Promotion and Marketing Articles: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ articles2/web-marketing-articles.htm Search Engine Marketing Resources : http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ articles2/optimization-tutorials.htm Affiliate Marketing Articles and Tutorials : Having been involved with affiliate marketing for some years now, I thought it would be valuable to some of our visitors to put together a series of article and tutorials on the subject. There's some excellent information about selecting affiliate programs to join up with, plus strategies in dealing with merchants and ways to protect your commissions. You'd be shocked by how much money you may be losing through sales leaks and other issues! http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ articles2/affiliate-marketing.htm Ecommerce Development and Strategies: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ articles2/ecommerce-articles.htm General Web Development Articles & Tutorials: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ articles2/web-development-articles.htm Online Business Security Resources: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ tools/security-software.htm I've been busy over the last few months updating a number of the articles and tutorials, plus adding some new material, so if you haven't visited Taming the Beast recently you'll probably find some interesting new and revamped free resources available. Other Miscellaneous AdditionsWe've updated our classifieds software, but posting an ad is still free. Take advantage of our traffic and give your ecommerce or web development related services some exposure here: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ cgi-bin/classifieds/index.cgi We've also expanded our range of free trial offers and software downloads from our various partners that may be of interest to you: Web site monitoring - free trialThere's nothing more frustrating than launching a campaign only to find that your site is down - long after it has occurred. Learn more about site monitoring and receive a free trial of one of the world's best services: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ tools/marketing-monitoring.htm Free web statistics services:If it can't be measured, it can't be managed. If your current web statistics tool isn't cutting it, check out this service: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ misc/free-traffic-monitoring.htm Free trial web macro softwareRepetition of any task is not only boring, but can seriously affect the effective use of time. So many tasks we carry out day to day as part of our online business operations can be simplified through the use of macros. Up until recently, macro software has been oriented around offline applications. That's all changed with Internet Macros! Learn more about this time saving application and download your free trial software here: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ tools/web-macro-software.htm Super Affiliate Recruitment SoftwareIf you're an an affiliate manager like me, you'll understand just how time consuming it can be trying to recruit "Super Affiliates to your program. Super Affiliates are the 5 percent of partners who tend to account for over 90 percent of all affiliate generated sales. Wouldn't it be great if we could locate & recruit a higher percentage of super affiliates to power our programs - yet not have to spend so much time in doing so? Now you can. Learn more about this software and download a free trial copy here: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ tools/recruit-affiliates.htm Autoresponder ReviewsHaving used a number of autoresponder software packages now, I've added an autoresponder review page to Taming the Beast. If you are thinking of purchasing software in the near future, check out my tips and reviews: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/tools/ autoresponder-software.htm Article Summary: Beyond the PopupPopups have been one of the most controversial form of web marketing in recent years. But it appears that their time may be rapidly drawing to a close. Over 40 million people now have the ability to block popups. What's next? Introducing the PopOver: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ articles3/popup-popover.htm This is just a small sample of the additions to Taming the Beast in recent months. As always, I'm open and appreciative of any feedback you may have. Thanks for subscribing to our ezine and for your patience! Our next issue will be in 2 weeks time. Other resources on Taming the Beast.netSearch engine optimization tutorials General web marketing & promotion articles Online business security articles and tools Affiliate marketing strategies and tutorials Ecommerce tutorials and guides. Web development tutorials and articles Regards, Michael Bloch
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